


Nuper In Nocte

by softiebee



Series: 30 Day Cheesy Trope Challenge [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: 30 Day Cheesy Tropes Challenge, M/M, Spin the Bottle, Underage Drinking, gansey is a dumb drunk, honestly henry is too but you can't really tell because he's the same as usual except more giggly, not that im calling henry dumb. i love henry cheng with all my heart and soul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:21:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8204209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softiebee/pseuds/softiebee
Summary: The Gangsey get drunk and play party games.





	

**Author's Note:**

> from the prompt: spin the bottle
> 
> this is a work of fiction. all characters belong to maggie steifvater and the raven cycle series.

Adam had never seen Gansey like this. He’d never seen him pink-cheeked and laughing around hiccups. He didn’t think Blue had, either; she was looking at him, holding her own bottle in one hand, like he had just grown a second head. Noah, when he was present, was draped over Blue’s shoulders, and though it was impossible for him to get drunk, it didn’t stop him from acting the part.

Adam had seen Ronan like this. Maybe not like this, exactly, but he had seen him drunk. Once, directly on Adam’s doorstep - Ronan had managed to walk up the three flights of stairs and collapsed on the bed without a word. It was different than it was now, with Ronan sitting in amicable silence, grinning stupidly at Henry as he tried to pull his shoelaces free of where Blue had tied them together. 

It was a late night at Monmouth. They had planned to go to Cabeswater, but Helen refused to fly the helicopter at the last minute and no one wanted to drive, so they were left grounded, all of them together in one room. It was Henry, surprisingly, who had pulled Ronan’s spare case of beer out from the top of the refrigerator, and Gansey who had twirled a bottle opener around his finger, and Ronan who hadn’t said a word, but let a jack-o-lantern smile stretch across his face.

“We should play spin the bottle,” Henry suggested, wiggling his eyebrows in a way that made Ronan almost fall into his lap from laughter. Blue suppressed a snort and looked at Gansey, who looked back at her with big moon eyes, entirely oblivious, it seemed, to sound and speech, so she heaved a sigh and reached behind him for his empty bottle. 

“I’m out,” she said, placing the bottle in the center of their small circle. “Just as a disclaimer. You all know I can’t play this one.” 

“Gotta play for something, shortstack.” Ronan wagged a slow finger at her, then laughed through his nose. Shaking her head, Blue leaned back against Gansey, who hooked an arm around her shoulders and pressed his face into her hair. 

Noah, now settled in a cloud around Henry, was the first to reach forward and flick the bottle. Henry let out a flurry of giggles that sounded more like a sneeze as it slowed to a stop, pointing at his knee. “Kiss me, Czerny,” he wheezed, and Noah pulled his head forward with both hands, leaving a wet kiss with a loud smack on his mouth. Gansey dissolved into breathy laughter and Ronan rocked back, clapping. Adam smiled into the mouth of his beer bottle.

He had never seen himself like this. Half drunk, unafraid, holding on his tongue what had turned his father’s breath to fire, his hands to iron fists. When Ronan had held out a bottle to him, neither of them had expected him to take it. 

“My turn!” Henry scrambled forward and spun, the bottle pinwheeling across the carpet to knock against Ronan’s ankle. The neck stopped on Gansey, who leaned forward, red, and met Henry halfway. It was a thing to see: the curve of Gansey’s neck, Henry’s hands with one finger under his shirt, how common it was, how comfortable. After a few seconds, Adam rolled his eyes and took another sip of beer. Blue poked Henry’s stomach and they split apart, breathless and smiling, Gansey somehow blushing harder than before.

“You need to breathe, you know.”

“Pfft,” Henry scoffed. “Priorities.”

Then it was Gansey’s turn, and so it went. Ronan was kissed. Noah was kissed, again. Gansey was kissed, again. Adam was kissed. And then it was his turn.

“Spin it! Spin it!” It was Blue who was chanting this, a collection of five or six bottles stacked in her lap along with much of Henry. All of them were in various stages of consciousness and coherency. Ronan watched him, eyes dark, over the lip of his bottle, and Adam found himself wishing as the bottle spun, _please. Please._

It twirled, and twirled, and slowed.

Ronan.

“Aha!” Henry exclaimed from Blue’s knee, punching through the air just before Gansey began to laugh. “The main event!”

“Shut _up_.” Ronan made a well-aimed kick towards his shin and reached out, pulling Adam forward by his shirt. There was a split second where Adam could feel his own heartbeat in his throat, and then Ronan’s cold mouth pressed into his, and for a brief moment, Adam was aware of _everything_. The pull of his shirt collar. Cold air on his ankles. Ronan, so close, _so_ close-

“Happy?”

It was over. Ronan was sitting back, and Blue was wolf whistling, and Henry and Noah were clapping so loudly it almost drowned out their laughter. Shaking his head to clear it, Adam pulled his shirt back into place and leaned back on his wrist, trying to look like he hadn’t just experienced a hurricane. 

“Going to spin?”

“I would, but our Dick seems to be out of the picture.” Ronan nodded towards Gansey, who was slumped onto Henry’s shoulder, mouth slightly open and drooling. “It just wouldn’t be fair.” Blue patted his shoulder affectionately and stood, the bottles tumbling out of her lap and onto the flour with a loud crash that managed to pull Gansey from the depths of sleep. He blinked up at her, bleary-eyed, and smiled.

“Jane…”

“Yeah,” she agreed, and hauled him up by the elbow, letting him use her as a walking stick to his bed across the room. Henry shrugged out from under Noah’s semi-transparent form and stretched up, twisting himself from side to side before following after them. Adam had a theory that the three of them could only sleep hopelessly tangled; if they tried with only two, or lying side by side, no one would get a wink.

With the three of them gone, it was increasingly difficult for Adam not to look at Ronan, so he looked at Noah instead, until Noah sighed into disappearance and Adam was left without options. He picked at a scab on his elbow and counted the beer bottles on the floor, trying to remember which belonged to whom, but mostly just trying not to lean over to Ronan and steal the air from his lungs. 

A minute passed, and Ronan shifted. Adam’s cheeks burned. _Look at him. Look at him._

He looked. 

Ronan was sitting with one leg bent, the other stretched in front of him, and he was looking back. The shock of his clear eyes crackled over Adam’s skin like lightning. He lifted his chin, unguarded, and Adam tried to swallow past all the breath crowding in his throat. 

“Want to play spin the bottle?”

“Sure.”

He pushed himself forward and Ronan slid a bottle between them, flicking the neck. It spun easily, frictionless against the soft carpet, and stopped, pointing to the door. Ronan flicked it again.

_What are we doing?_

He knew.

Even before it stopped on Adam, he was leaning forward, pressing a hand to Ronan’s warm jaw, and Ronan was pulling him towards him, onto him, stretching his chin up to catch Adam’s mouth. Ronan’s hands found their way around Adam’s waist, anchoring him, assuring him, setting him on slow fire, and when Adam pulled back, Ronan followed his lips until he leaned down and pushed towards him again, finding the softness between the cracks of Ronan’s mouth. At some point, kisses became breath, and Adam couldn’t seem to get enough. It was Ronan who pulled back the second time, but he didn’t go far. He stayed within a breath of Adam’s lips, nose brushing Adam’s cheek, mouth curling into a cocky half-smile. Adam wanted to map that smile out and keep it in his hands. 

Ronan patted his leg, and it was then that Adam noticed how low his eyelashes were drooping, how loose he had become. He slipped off, and Ronan lay down on the carpet, tugging Adam down beside him. They slept, and did not dream.

**Author's Note:**

> i loved writing this fic but i know the end is a little half assed. i'll come back to it later once i'm done with the whole challenge. day 2 complete!! next up: clothes sharing.
> 
> it would make my day if you left me kudos or comments! you can find me on tumblr at c-beswater.


End file.
